First look review + Awards and prizes | The Guardianhttp://www.theguardian.com/film/series/first-look-review+culture/awards-and-prizes
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A Most Violent Year review: plucky Oscars outsider draws bloodhttp://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/nov/07/a-most-violent-year-review-plucky-outsider-draws-blood-in-this-years-oscar-battle
<p>Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain star in the latest film from Margin Call and All is Lost director JC Chandor – a rigorous crime drama which paints a knotty, nuanced portrait of the man who fuelled the 1980s</p><p>In the winter of 1981, with snow swirling and the crime-rate soaring, New York needs someone to help keep out the chill. Cometh the crisis, cometh Abel Morales and his heating oil business. Morales is an immigrant upstart with his eye on the prize; a sharp-suited salesman chasing the American dream. His future’s so bright it’s about to burst into flames. </p><p>A Most Violent Year, fittingly enough, comes billed as the plucky outsider in the pending Oscar race, a film on a mission to unseat the big favourites. Like Morales, the odds are stacked against it. And yet, like Morales, JC Chandor’s period crime drama is rigorous, resourceful and as smart as a whip. It surely can’t win; it’s too nuanced and sombre. But its canny tactical struggle remains a joy to behold.<br /></p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/nov/07/a-most-violent-year-review-plucky-outsider-draws-blood-in-this-years-oscar-battle">Continue reading...</a>A Most Violent YearDramaJessica ChastainFilmOscars 2015OscarsNew YorkAwards and prizesCultureFri, 07 Nov 2014 05:30:04 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/nov/07/a-most-violent-year-review-plucky-outsider-draws-blood-in-this-years-oscar-battlePhotograph: PRJessica Chastain and Oscar Isaac in A Most Violent Year.Photograph: PRJessica Chastain and Oscar Isaac in A Most Violent Year.Xan Brooks2014-11-07T05:30:04Z12 Years a Slave: Toronto film festival - first look reviewhttp://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/sep/07/twelve-years-a-slave-review-toronto
Steve McQueen's much-hyped slavery drama is a brutal, excoriating and vital companion to Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained<br /><br /><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/sep/07/12-years-a-slave-toronto-premiere">• News: ecstatic reaction for 12 Years a Slave</a><p> Stark, visceral and unrelenting, 12 Years a Slave is not just a great film but a necessary one. The phrase &quot;long-awaited&quot; has been much used to describe this third feature from British director Steve McQueen, which sees Chiwetel Ejiofor alongside Michael Fassbender in a star-studded cast. It's a common piece of cinematic hyperbole but it also describes the function this picture serves in confronting a practice that endured in the United States of America for nearly 250 years.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/sep/07/twelve-years-a-slave-review-toronto">Continue reading...</a>12 Years A SlaveFilmCultureToronto film festivalToronto film festival 2013Steve McQueenMichael FassbenderSlaveryAwards and prizesOscarsSat, 07 Sep 2013 18:59:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/sep/07/twelve-years-a-slave-review-torontoFrançois Duhamel/APMichael Fassbender, Lupita Nyong'o and Chiwetel Ejiofor in 12 Years a Slave. Photograph: François Duhamel/APAllstar/NEW REGENCY PICTURES/Sportsphoto Ltd./AllstarChiwetel Ejiofor stars in the Steve McQueen film, 12 Years a Slave, which will premier at the Toronto film festival. Photograph: Allstar/NEW REGENCY PICTURES/Sportsphoto Ltd./AllstarPaul MacInnes2013-09-07T18:59:00ZCannes film festival 2011 roundup: The Artist saves us from Von Trier-induced melancholiahttp://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/may/20/cannes-film-festival-2011-roundup-von-trier
Let's hope Michel Hazanavicius's The Artist wins over the jury at this year's Cannes festival and it's not just remembered for Lars von Trier's almighty clanger<br /><p>First things first: the migraine-inducing scandal. How incredible that this year's Cannes film festival might go down in history for the most <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/may/19/cannes-film-festival-2011-lars-von-trier-banned" title="">foolish and obnoxious joke ever made by any film director</a> at a festival press conference. Discussing his film <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/may/18/cannes-2011-review-melancholia" title="">Melancholia</a>, the Danish director <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/video/2011/may/19/lars-von-trier-nazi-cannes?intcmp=239" title="">Lars von Trier grinningly claimed to have some regard for Hitler and antipathy for the Jews</a>. He got the red card, but his film stays in competition, and my suspicion is that he will be back here with his next movie in a couple of years' time. Martyrdom isn't on the cards.</p><p>No, of course he didn't &quot;mean&quot; it, and he's not really antisemitic, although he's not obviously anti-antisemitic either. The point is that this giggling prankster of the cinema rarely &quot;means&quot; anything: all too often – though not always – the movies themselves are japes and stunts. I have long suspected that, despite his claim to be suffering from depression, what this talented man actually has is limelight addiction, and depression is a periodic symptom of not getting his fix. And it could be that Von Trier was also suffering from some variation on &quot;Cannes madness&quot;, which can afflict everyone out here from the grandest auteur to the humblest hack. The sun, the parties, the ros&eacute;, the absence of spouses and children ... on this annual bacchanal-pilgrimage to the south of France, people can get overexcited. Generally, there's a &quot;what happens in Cannes, stays in Cannes&quot; rule. But not if you've done something silly in front of the world's press. This year, Von Trier turned from being a sporadically amusing clown into a very, very unamusing one. His film was dull and that, in the end, was the important thing.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/may/20/cannes-film-festival-2011-roundup-von-trier">Continue reading...</a>Cannes 2011Cannes film festivalAwards and prizesFestivalsLars von TrierFilmCultureMichel HazanaviciusMelancholiaFri, 20 May 2011 15:57:25 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/may/20/cannes-film-festival-2011-roundup-von-trierStephane Reix/For Picture/CorbisCharlotte Gainsbourg, Lars von Trier and Kirsten Dunst at the Cannes 2011 premiere of Melancholia. Photograph: Stephane Reix/For Picture/CorbisStephane Reix/For Picture/CorbisCharlotte Gainsbour, Lars Von Trier and Kirsten Dunst at the premiere of Melancholia. Photograph: Stephane Reix/For Picture/CorbisPeter Bradshaw2011-05-20T15:57:25ZUncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives | Film reviewhttp://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/may/24/uncle-boonmee-cannes-palme-winner
Dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul<p>Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Thai movie has a cumbersome title, but it&nbsp;is a gloriously worthy winner of the Palme d'Or at this year's Cannes film festival. This is a visionary film in the director's characteristic style: mysterious, dreamlike, gentle, quiet, magical. It has elements that are at first glance absurd, and at second or third glance, too, come&nbsp;to that. But they are beguiling and beautiful as well: the extended, wordless opening sequence in which a water buffalo appears to break free from its rope and roam the plains and forests of north-east Thailand at dusk is superbly filmed.</p><p>Boonmee is a middle-aged man, in need of kidney dialysis, who has come to the remote forest to end his days: this is an important place from his childhood, and, he believes, the location for his former existences. His recalling of these past lives is partly, but&nbsp;only partly, a case of previous incarnations being presented in a mystical flashback parallel. There is&nbsp;an extraordinary scene in which an unhappy princess converses and then has ecstatic sex with a catfish. The past lives of the title also refer to those of other <sup></sup>people now lost to Boonmee: his dead wife and lost son.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/may/24/uncle-boonmee-cannes-palme-winner">Continue reading...</a>Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past LivesCannes film festivalApichatpong WeerasethakulFilmAwards and prizesWorld cinemaCultureCannes 2010Mon, 24 May 2010 13:01:19 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/may/24/uncle-boonmee-cannes-palme-winnerPRSuperb … Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past LivesPRUncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past LivesPeter Bradshaw2010-05-24T13:01:19Z